Oh, Vermont, You Sexy Thang: A Travel Writer’s Lusty Ode

Here is a very short quiz: What word does not belong in this series? Family, Long Trail, canoeing, Frisbies, green, mountain biking, Segways, sexy, vacation, Vermont, water parks, travel news…

The eagle-eyed among you might have guessed “Frisbies” because it’s misspelled. But no, my friends, the correct answer is “sexy!”

And that is precisely the word that travel writer Richard Bangs employed in the headline of his recent essay on Vermont for the Huffington Post. In fact, telescoping the over-the-top, rapturous prose in his piece, the full title is this: “Sexy Vermont: 50 Shades of Green.”

(If you don’t get the reference, Google 50 Shades of Grey. We’ll wait.)

Back? OK. So Mr. Bangs came to Vermont and he really liked it. I mean, he really, really liked it. He liked it so much that his resulting paean to the state is almost X-rated. Here’s his opening salvo:

Who would have guessed? But, as laid bare before me, Vermont is the sexiest state.

Beyond its partially trussed shoulders, and sensually curved back, beyond its juicy, succulent berries, Vermont is a place that emanates a pheromone that smells more pine than Axe. And yet it somehow manages to excite in ways unexpected.

Got something to say?

Send a letter to the editor and we'll publish your feedback in print!